Art Institute of Chicago

Stater (Coin) Depicting a Quadriga

Greek; minted in Cyrene, North Africa

Date

322-308 BCE

Medium

Gold

Culture

Shahhat

Department

Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The front (obverse) of this coin depicts a quadriga (four-horse chariot) to the right driven by a youthful charioteer with a sun-disc with 5 rays. The back (reverse) depicts the god Zeus Ammon with a horn, standing to the left, holding a patera (dish) over a thymiaterion, with 5 patela. This coin shows the deity Zeus Amon, a combination of the Greek god Zeus and the Egyptian god Amun. He holds a scepter while pouring an offering from a patera, a plate used for offerings of olive oil or wine. The god can be identified by the diadem of rams’ horns, the traditional crown of Amon, the creator-deity of Egypt. Amon was no stranger to the Greeks. As early as the 5th century BCE, there was a temple on the Greek mainland built for his worship.

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